WTF?! First it was Liz Hurley, and now its Richard Gere. Looks like the Indian courts dont have anything better to do. And what the hell is so wrong with kissing in public? Geez..time to get into the 21st Century, India.

Quoting Springbok747 (Thread starter):WTF?! First it was Liz Hurley, and now its Richard Gere. Looks like the Indian courts dont have anything better to do. And what the hell is so wrong with kissing in public? Geez..time to get into the 21st Century, India.

Public displays of affection are frowned upon in many cultures.

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana!There are 10 types of people in the World - those that understand binary and those that don't.

Quoting Gkirk (Reply 5):I'm all for cultural diversity, but there's a difference between cultural diversity and living in the past.
But, hey ho, if that's the way they want to do things over there, then so be it.

India is a democracy, Kirkie. We aren't talking about some backward dictatorship here.

Apparently in the US he's facing further disappointment because Shilpa is a woman....

Quoting TRVYYZ (Reply 14):Quoting HAWK21M (Reply 13):
Not at all.
I feel its a matter which is getting unneeded Importance.

Why doesn't the court feel the same way?

The magistrate thought the act 'highly erotic' and issued the offbeat warrant. It is very likely that a High Court will quash this absurd order - it wasn't even in the aforesaid magistrates' jurisdiction.

There is no need to exhibit any cultural sensitivity in this matter. Every country has its reactionary elements and tolerance merely encourages these people to be stuck in the 15th century. Gkirk, Scrbiml, this would be like tolerating stocks and assizes in the UK. These people go around policing young couples holding hands and beating them up with sticks, and don't deserve any sensitivity.

The worst is: they have better things to do, and want to distract from that! Lower courts are overworked and often corrupt, while only the High Courts and Supreme Court of India can be called a real court for the people, a watchdog of the constitution and of the exec. & leg.

Quoting Cornish (Reply 9):He should be arrested for Pretty Woman if you ask me.

- international order

Quoting TRVYYZ (Reply 10):Do you agree with the court's decision to issue a warrant for Gere?

No, never. Although I am the first to sign anything regarding cultural sensitivity, this is an "unindian" act of chicanery. If you look at the entire history of India, you will realize that love and sex and homosexuality was an integral part of the open culture (see some pics below I took in Khajarao). It is just a bunch of idiots, of religious hardliners, who interpret it as nonwestern in order to maintain and extend their power and suppress the people! A kiss on the chick and more can be observed anywhere in DEL, BOM, BLR etc., it is just a good way to be populist. Stupid judge

I read an article about that in the Indian media, who make out a mockery of the court, and they are right! Even conservative judges, lawyers, criticize this...

Here the pics:

Can history in temples lie?

WTF? And he is prosecuted for kissing on the chick??? Some people need to open their eyes, face reality and get out of the public domain with their dogmatic approach to society!!!

"The earth provides enough resources for everyone's need, but not for some people's greed." (Gandhi)

Quoting JGPH1A (Reply 8):So is Iran, in theory, and they still make women wear binbags and stone blasphemers. So was ancient Athens, but they still owned slaves. Democracy is the first sign of enlightenment, not the last.

Yeah but there's no Indian laws that say public displays of affection are illegal (even though it is culturally frowned upon). This is nothing more than attention whoring by some stupid judge and will probably be thrown out by a higher court.

Either way it does make Indians look like complete prudes (which they are to some extent), but that is a different matter.

"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a big fat white guy who is threatened by change."

Quoting Mdsh00 (Reply 18):
Yeah but there's no Indian laws that say public displays of affection are illegal

Not true:

Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code:

Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 10 years and shall also be liable to fine.
Explanation: Penetration is sufficient to constitute the carnal intercourse necessary to the offence described in this section.

Of course, it speaks of carnal intercourse. However, if queer people display their affection, police action starts in practice

This is of course not relevant to Gere's case. Delhi used to have a law banning public kissing, passed by the useless right wing BJP government of DEL that time,

[Edited 2007-04-27 17:32:09]

"The earth provides enough resources for everyone's need, but not for some people's greed." (Gandhi)

Quoting Mdsh00 (Reply 18):Either way it does make Indians look like complete prudes (which they are to some extent), but that is a different matter.

In the early 90s, when I walked around Delhi with my wife (who is Indian), people would come up and call her a whore. Things have much improved over the past decade, but their prejudices are not far below the surface.

Quoting Cfalk (Reply 21):In the early 90s, when I walked around Delhi with my wife (who is Indian), people would come up and call her a whore.

That's really horrible. How do you feel about the other Indian cities? I bet all are not as bad, except for one of those curious looks. I don't think things are so bad in cities of Kerala or even Bombay etc.

Quoting TRVYYZ (Reply 22):That's really horrible. How do you feel about the other Indian cities?

Rajistan was fine - particularly the tourist spots, where people are used to seeing foreigners accompanied by Indians, I suppose. Same with Agra. I've travelled throughout central and southern India as well, but that was without my wife.

Quoting Cfalk (Reply 21):In the early 90s, when I walked around Delhi with my wife (who is Indian), people would come up and call her a whore. Things have much improved over the past decade, but their prejudices are not far below the surface.

That sucks but I think I know what you mean.

Many of us 1st generation Indians who were born and raised in the US (like myself) have had to deal with the old fashioned values of our parents, to that of American values regarding the opposite sex. From what I hear things have been changing a lot in India, and sometimes a little too fast because I hear a lot of stories about some rich skanks that try to emulate what they see on Western TV. So part of the problem is a clash of the the older generation hanging onto its traditions very strongly vs. the confused youth that are trying a little too hard to be "Westernized" rather than trying to find a balance. My guess is that it somehow plays out in stupid cases like these.

Quoting Mdsh00 (Reply 24):kissing in public, which I thought is still legal but just frowned upon.

you are absolutely right. It was once upon a time banned in DEL, but there is, afaik no law against.. all the "new-economy teens and twens" kiss and do whatever in public nowaday

Quoting Mdsh00 (Reply 24):Many of us 1st generation Indians who were born and raised in the US

I would rather call us second generation Indians, 1st is the one who migrated. I am quite lucky with my parents and my gf's parents in every regard here (as we are a North/South couple), but both are rather the exception

"The earth provides enough resources for everyone's need, but not for some people's greed." (Gandhi)

Quoting Mrniji (Reply 25):you are absolutely right. It was once upon a time banned in DEL, but there is, afaik no law against.. all the "new-economy teens and twens" kiss and do whatever in public nowaday

It is actually section 294 of IPC
294. Obscene acts and songs

Whoever, to the annoyance of others--

(a) does any obscene act in any public place, or

(b) sings, recites, or utters any obscene song, ballad or words, in or near any public place,

shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three months, or with fine, or with both.

Quoting Mrniji (Reply 25):I would rather call us second generation Indians, 1st is the one who migrated. I am quite lucky with my parents and my gf's parents in every regard here (as we are a North/South couple), but both are rather the exception

Yeah I often get confused with what is 1st or 2nd generation. Then again, my parents have lived longer in the US than in India. I'm also pretty lucky with my parents and their handling of my gf too. However I know of a lot of other parents that are not so liberal that way.

Quoting TRVYYZ (Reply 26):(b) sings, recites, or utters any obscene song, ballad or words, in or near any public place,

The most vague law I have ever seen. By that, any protest or demonstration or parade could be called "obscene."

"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a big fat white guy who is threatened by change."

Quoting Mdsh00 (Reply 27):Yeah I often get confused with what is 1st or 2nd generation.

We, those who were born abroad are always called 2nd generations! We share the same destiny. Good to know about your parents, mine are, as said, the same, Here comes the classic distinction (a bad joke to follow, Manav):

1st generations: They are attached to their home countries and only stay for economic reasons. Objective of returning
2nd generation: Born abroad, don't want to know about India, want to (understandably) be integrated in local culture
3rd generation: chilled, quite attached to local surroundings, but they occasionally to to the Gudwara to watch the beautiful Punjabi Gudijahs

Thank you, I did not know about this. Will look into it. The section I cited is used to criminalize homosexuals. And as I have tried to show with my pics, homosexuality is actually a part of Hindu (and maybe also Indian) culture, hence (and for other reasons) I condemn any attempt against sexual discrimination as it is happening too often in India. India has become strong in accepting, tolerating and the "unity of diversity", any attempt by a majority group (be it Hindu, caste, gender etc) to capture power needs to be combated in its core!

"The earth provides enough resources for everyone's need, but not for some people's greed." (Gandhi)

Quoting Mrniji (Reply 25):you are absolutely right. It was once upon a time banned in DEL, but there is, afaik no law against.. all the "new-economy teens and twens" kiss and do whatever in public nowaday

You're right, especially in the bigger cities with their new shopping malls.

Indians still seem to have a problem with defining what is "obscene" and what is not. If Gere's kiss is seen as "obscene", then why they hell have they not destroyed those carvings on the temples in those photographs...they're explicit porn..aren't they?!

Quoting Mrniji (Reply 28):1st generations: They are attached to their home countries and only stay for economic reasons. Objective of returning
2nd generation: Born abroad, don't want to know about India, want to (understandably) be integrated in local culture
3rd generation: chilled, quite attached to local surroundings, but they occasionally to to the Gudwara to watch the beautiful Punjabi Gudijahs

My favorite Indian journalist, Tavleen Singh, sums it up perfectly in this article (Incidentally, she also exposes the rot, hypocrisy and incompetence of those so-called Indian leaders every week in her column):

First let me say that if a kiss from Richard Gere is among the perks of taking up the fight against AIDS, then consider me officially registered as an activist from this moment on.

. . . .

When that self-appointed guardian of Indian ‘culture’ went to court in Jaipur to seek satisfaction for being ‘offended’ by the kiss, did he not know that the condition of the girl child in Rajasthan is almost worse than anywhere else in India? Not only are female literacy rates among the lowest, but the last well-known case of Sati occurred less than a hundred kilometers from Jaipur.

These same thugs run around shutting down movie theaters that show films exploring complex social issues (dowry, the wretched plight of child brides, real sexuality as opposed to starlets gyrating in tight white wet see through sarees, the horrors of partition). They do nothing more than spread ignorance and rot in a country that has more than enough of both.

A country should be judged by 2 basic standards: the way it treats its women, and the state of its indoor plumbing. India flunks on both counts.

Quoting TRVYYZ (Reply 10):Do you agree with the court's decision to issue a warrant for Gere

I don't think anyone I know of agrees (even remotely) with the court's decision. In fact right from the edits in papers, to statements from other leading lawyers and justices, everyone uniformly agrees that this is definitely going overboard.

The problem with these right-wing idiots in India is that they get press. It is best just to ignore them. However it is also important to note with all the push to westernize in India, majority of Indians still live rurally and are socially a conservative lot. As Subin has mentioned, the country has a rich history of eroticism, however 500 years of Mogul and British prudishness has quashed it.

Well, just one when you thought that Hindu religious fundamentalists were pushing the envelope of sanity, here come the Iranian fundies, who once again show that they're champions of the loonie-fundie genre.

News from today is that the judge in question has been transferred (a random transfer is generally a form of punishment) to another court in Rajasthan now. This judge has a history of being trigger happy, and has issued arrest warrants like this (unfounded) about 6 times in the past!!